Date: Fri, 13 Feb 1998 23:40:08 +0000
Subject: M-G: A pamphlet for today


I pulled down the Manifesto today to check whether there was any clue as to
which day in February 1848 it was published. Not in my edition. But tonight
the BBC claim it was indeed 150 years ago today that it was published (in
German) in London.

A lively and spirited interview with Robin Blackburn defended the current
relevance of the pamphlet. He referred to Hobsbawm's description of it as a
pamphlet for today.

With both author's under the age of thirty, it would seem easy to dismiss
it as the brashness of youth. 

Why so topical now?  The pamphlet correctly predicted the wave of
revolution and revolutionary activity that swept over Europe that year. The
simplistic dismissal is that it failed in prediction of subsequent
revolution in mainstream capitalist countries, as opposed to revolutions in
the weakest link.

But although it seems presumptious to privilege any one reading of this
text, and a pity there has not been a more general debate, I would suggest
one yardstick is between a mechanical and a dialectical reading of the
text. Read mechanically, the predictions were of limited relevance. Read
dialectically, the contradictions, on both a national and global scale are
laid bare, and continue to unfold with enormous force. 

150 years is a short time in human history. The unfolding of these
contradictions has become more extensive and more complex than could have
been predicted in 1848. Over a 500 year perspective the jury is still out.

Furthermore it is implicit in the Manifesto that much of human history
occurs as a result of processes that are not fully conscious. 

There may be unconscious, as well as conscious, testamentary executors.

Perhaps others have different points they would emphasise about the Manifesto.


Chris Burford

London







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